In 1988, the Dallas Gay Alliance, the city’s largest gay and lesbian rights organization, sued Parkland Hospital over its treatment of people with AIDS, claiming that the county-funded public hospital was failing to live up to its mission of providing healthcare to everyone regardless of their ability to pay. Their action caused a rift in the Dallas gay and lesbian community, as many activists opposed using a lawsuit against what they perceived as a friend of the community. Would the DGA’s lawsuit be able to improve the quality of care that people with AIDS received at Parkland?

Queering the Lone Star State is funded in part by a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Additional support is provided by the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Willis Library’s Special Collections Division, and the departments of history and media arts at the University of North Texas. You can find more episodes, a selection of our sources, and a teaching guide at our website, www.queeringthelonestarstate.com. The series is produced and edited by Sarah Lyngholm. Morgan Reese designed our website. Our theme music was composed by Nicolas Neidhardt.

Additional music in this episode was composed by Wavemaster and Sonican.